[Gilead]

Originally Posted by geeash

GTO you have reported 901, which one is true?. can you shed more light?

I believe 901 is the number of Lineas sold by Fiat to the dealers. The dealers may have sold more to the end customer as they would have had an inventory build up.

[shrinivasap]

If you see Tata Motors press release on 1st of june, it says they have sold 1175 Fiat cars in total. Hence, linea number of 901 tends to be true.

[shrinivasap]

Originally Posted by Gilead

I believe 901 is the number of Lineas sold by Fiat to the dealers. The dealers may have sold more to the end customer as they would have had an inventory build up.

If i am correct, sales count is always calculated on end user sales by dealer. Inventory is never added to sales.

[diffsoft]

Originally Posted by vid6639

Skoda really have lost the plot. 175 Superbs to 212 Accords. ..... Where does it take a beating? The damn after sales, else Accord would have packed up sales here.

Skoda sales for the year are down across the board even when the category is expanding. For instance Fabia numbers are pathetic, and they were offering a discount!

Sad but true - great cars, raved and drooled over the auto journos but as Skoda and the auto media is realizing; you need decent A*S*S as well. Folks paying top dollar are more informed and more discerning. You can not always pride, cheat or forge your way to success


If only Skoda had been nice to disgruntled customers as a first step and then take care as a second step they would have gained far more in revenues than they would have lost as cost of extra service.

@GTO: Fabia production for May may be small because it may not be counting production from Chakan, from where Fabia is now made

Cheers,

[Caramelo]

HOW is the ritz doing in the sales figures. i wanted to know plz!!

[d_payne]

Originally Posted by shrinivasap

If i am correct, sales count is always calculated on end user sales by dealer. Inventory is never added to sales.

I don't concur with this. Unless it is different for automobile dealers, "net sales" for any company is always the number of units sold by the company - irrespective of whom they sell to. In FMCG and electronics, companies (manufacturers) sell to dealers who in turn sell to retailers and in turn to consumers. The primary sale or recognition of revenue for the company is made at the sale-to-dealer point, everything else from that point onwards is the dealer's business. Also termed as off-take.

Also, goods sold to a dealer become the ownership of the dealer. Hence sales from dealer are the business of the dealer. A company's internal sales figures will always show sales to dealers, but research and audit reports (external) such as AC Nielsen and ORGMarg will always show off-take data.

If this is external data from a 3rd-party source, then it is off-take. "Sales" per se is an internal measure of the company to dealers.

This might be blindingly obvious to some but doesn't hurt putting it here.

Also, GTO: Great analysis with thorough knowledge. The City's and Corolla's success are clear indicators of both the brand's equity in India as well as the money that Indians are will to spend for the same. The only popular segment that Honda and Toyota have not yet cracked is the premium hatchback market - I am sure the Jazz will be a runaway success and the Yaris too (if and when it arrives).

Cheers!
Payne

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by d_payne

The only popular segment that Honda and Toyota have not yet cracked is the premium hatchback market - I am sure the Jazz will be a runaway success and the Yaris too (if and when it arrives).

This is one customer who is waiting for their smaller cars. Jazz if in automatic.
More likely to be Toyota though, not because it may be necessarily a better car than Honda Jazz but because (a) my maiden experience with a Toyota car has been excellent so far (b) they have pampered with after-sales (company and dealer). In such a situation, the least I can do is to payback with my money.

[raneeshvijayan]

Considering FIAT's name in the market 901 lineas/month is still a great achievement. It will be bad if the number goes further down.

From a friend of mine who deals with spare parts, I've learned the headlight assembly of Linea costs just 1600Rs....that means FIAT is gonna gain its name for cheap spare parts. Punto's spares are cheaper than swift spare parts. (parts are already available in the market, surprised ??? Believe it)

Once the word of mouth spreads, Linea sales will pickup for sure.

Raneesh

[jaganm]

Originally Posted by Gilead

I believe 901 is the number of Lineas sold by Fiat to the dealers. The dealers may have sold more to the end customer as they would have had an inventory build up.

Could it be that Fiat has shifted the assembly to manufacture GP ahead of its launch? That would mean lower dispatches to dealers thus explaining the lower sales.

[ameenmaj]

GTO & Vasudeva: Thanks a lot for the hard work you guys have taken up.
I've been following it since last month(April report). Wonderful job.

I do have a request though: Please try and put the top 10 selling cars for the month. Like we have it in Auto magazines and all.

[rajneeesh]

GTO/Vasudeva,

Would it be possible to have a split of C segment MSIL Sales between the Dzire and the SX4.

[Mysticeyes]

Originally Posted by GTO

Hatchbacks:

- The worst selling hatch in the country? Yup, it’s the Skoda Fabia. A meager 232 cars sold, Skoda is now selling old stock Fabia (only 50 produced in 5/09). Skoda expected this car to give it the volumes (cheapest in the lineup) but is paying a heavy price for its shoddy service, expensive cost of ownership, substandard reliability etc.

Where does Ford (Fusion) with only 90 units moved stand? A question out of curiosity please..

[Amartya]

First of all, thank you to both GTO and Vasudeva. I also read the article that Vasudeva posted as a link (Brand Loyalty...), it was a treat.

I have been keeping a tab on the combined sales figures of the Indica (Prev. Gen and Vista) and it's heartening to see that it is slowly gaining ground (I hope because of the Vista).

A colleague of mine purchased a Vista Quadrajet Aura a couple of months back, and I keep seeing it frequently in the office parking lot. Going over the lines of the car again and again, I have gradually started to love it. It's actually a very balanced design (earlier I used to think that it was a trifle slab sided). Adding to that, I think the Noble Blue colour (this particular car sports this colour) complements it fantastically. I think with time, this design is going to age very gracefully (unlike something like the ritz!) and people would really appreciate that this is a great VFM proposition.

Once the dust settles down in this segment, I would be happy if the Vista comes out on top. Call it irrational, or unfound nationalistic pride but somehow a Tata vehicle beating all competition is something that I always wish for.

Now, if they only chuck those horrid wheelcaps and put in meatier tires!

[SilentEngine]

Honda is targeting 20000 Jazz per year. Thats comes around 1650+ per month.

Honda to Challenge Suzuki in India With Small Cars (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

Any idea how many i20s are sold per month? It will be interesting to compare the two numbers.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by vasudeva

There is a famous scholarly article that was published in 1991 that analysed the decline of US auto firms. This is called:

Outstanding article! Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by akhilesh51

I am sure VW is gathering momentum and will affect the sales of rival cars.

Unfortunately, VW doesn't seem too keen on reporting its numbers. Too low = too shy?

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

another interesting aspect to analyze/understand would be
share of entry, mid end, sedans and high end to understand
the shift in consumer preference

@GTO : is there any such info available ?

Of course! Look up in the excel sheet (on the first page). Segment wise numbers are provided as well.

Originally Posted by vid6639

Where does it take a beating? The damn after sales, else Accord would have packed up sales here.

Japanese = Peace of the mind. Be it Maruti, Honda or Toyota.

Originally Posted by diffsoft

@GTO: Fabia production for May may be small because it may not be counting production from Chakan, from where Fabia is now made

I'd presume when the company reports these numbers, they would include all manufacturing facilities.

Originally Posted by Caramelo

HOW is the ritz doing in the sales figures. i wanted to know plz!!

I believe the Ritz has gotten off to a good start. Though, with a launch only on 15th May, we'd see the real effect on Maruti's sales in the June - December period.

Originally Posted by d_payne

If this is external data from a 3rd-party source, then it is off-take. "Sales" per se is an internal measure of the company to dealers.

The data provided is from the SIAM.

Originally Posted by rajneeesh

GTO/Vasudeva,

Would it be possible to have a split of C segment MSIL Sales between the Dzire and the SX4.

Will try to source.

Originally Posted by Mysticeyes

Where does Ford (Fusion) with only 90 units moved stand? A question out of curiosity please..

Is the Fusion a hatch? Or an SUV? Or something in between? Even Ford doesn't know (if you go by their ads). Is Ford even producing the Fusion anymore? Somehow, I can't accept the Fusion in the same categorisation as other hatchbacks.